Tài liệu Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan Chapter 12 pdf

Implementing and Sustaining
Your Business Plan
T
his chapter describes how you implement and sustain your
business plan. It suggests how you can assemble the plan from
different levels, initiate the plan, and provide sustaining activities.
These are the third and fourth steps in the four-step plan (see Figure
12-1) that began with preplanning and planning activities.
Included in the implementation phase are suggestions for measur-
ing the performance of your plan.
323
CHAPTER
12
One of the key steps for implementing the plan is the removal
of heat loss or organizational inefficiencies inherent to any system.
This chapter provides the steps for you to successfully map and cor-
rect any deficiencies.
The chapter concludes with information on conducting orga-
nizational change activities, along with suggestions on leadership
and managership skills development. For the plan to succeed it
must be implemented by people with the basic skills of leading and
managing the workforce.
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
324
Figure 12-1. The implementing and sustaining phases must work
together in a seamless flow to ensure execution of the plan.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN
The implementing period begins with a consolidation of the vari-
ous levels of plans. Once your subordinate planning teams have
taken the planning details of Level 1 down to Levels 2, 3, or 4, they
must be reassembled to ensure plan continuity. To do this, schedule

a one-day conference with representatives from each team where
they present their own supporting plan and display their interpre-
tation of the concepts. The idea is to cross-check the viability of
plans across a single level, then roll the information upward to the
next level. If the teams have properly followed the provided plan-
ning templates, the plans should fit together with minimum adjust-
ment. If one subplan is out of alignment, that particular planning
team must go back to adjust its targets, objectives, or goals.
If the plan fits together at Level 1, implementation begins with
a communication from top management to execute tasks found in
the action plan initiated according to the schedule. This leads to
the most important part of implementation—the use of perfor-
mance measurements.
Monitoring Your Plan to Ensure Compliance
Your plan should be monitored frequently to make sure it is being
implemented in the spirit and intent of the planning conference.
Some businesses in certain situations elect to monitor their progress
or success on a weekly basis. This is probably appropriate for oper-
ational levels in an organization. For example, in a manufacturing
environment you may choose to monitor daily and formally report
weekly. Some organizations choose to report on a monthly basis.
Tracking sales monthly is a common example. The minimum
length of time allowed without formally checking your plan is a
quarter. Reporting results on a quarterly basis is the most accepted
business practice for performance measures. The framework is con-
sistent with financial reporting, shareholder expectations, and pub-
lic acceptance. I recommend this as your minimum reporting
schedule (see Figure 12-2).
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
325

The fourth point of monitoring your plan is the annual report.
At the end of the fourth quarter you need to look back at the four
quarters collectively. The past year is compared with the previous
year and projected out to the ten-year plan. This gives you a base-
line to begin planning for the next year or repeating the one-year
operational plan. The results are published in the annual report.
Companies spend a lot of money and effort writing, publishing,
and distributing their annual report. You may make the report sim-
ple or detailed, depending on your desire and intent.
In establishing the next operational plan, year two of the ten
years, repeat the process of setting tasks as you did with the first
operational plan and the related action plan list. Each year you
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
326
Figure 12-2. The implementation period is characterized by quarterly
reviews. A full review and update of the plan is conducted in the fourth
quarter.
rebuild your operational plan based on what you are trying to
accomplish in the one-year period against the ten-year goals. This
means your plan’s time span is getting shorter each year. The com-
mon trap is to also extend the life of the business plan by one
year—always keeping a ten-year time frame. This is dangerous
because you fall into the trap of strategic planning creep. Allow
your plan to perform or mature for a number of years before you
move the ten-year goals. My clients seem to get three or four years
completed on their ten-year business plan before they move the
end goals. This allows them to check assumptions, qualify the accu-
racy of their numbers, and measure their sustained performance.
The recommendation, therefore, is to let your plan run a few years
before radically shifting goals. Minor adjustments are necessary and

acceptable, but don’t abandon your goals and plans in the first year.
Tracking the performance of your plan is easy. The numbers
can be tallied. The actions can be checked off for completion. The
real problem with performance is not measurement but rather
accountability. What do you do when the plan is not being ful-
filled? Investigate the reasons for not hitting the targets carefully
before you take action. Consider these questions:
■ Is it normal statistical deviation? No one can accurately pre-
dict where your performance will fall on a projection
chart. The plan may be off because of normal statistical
deviation, or what is called the zig and zag. The issue is
how far off you are from where you wanted to be. Is 5 per-
cent deviation (i.e., a subjective percentage you set)
acceptable? Can you live with 10 percent deviation? If the
deviation is not in the end acceptable, you must go back
into your plan to look at the data. Reexamine information
such as sales projections, costs of doing business, and prof-
it margins to find the source of plan failure. Make correc-
tions accordingly. Remember, shortfalls are compounded.
The further you get behind the further you get behind.
The efforts to catch up expand exponentially.
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
327
■ Is it a failure of the management team to implement? This is
the most common cause of plan deviation. Repeatedly I
find teams not fulfilling promises made in the action plan.
Once the planning session is over, business as usual pre-
vails. The individual or team doesn’t follow through with
commitments. The antidote for individual failure or non-
compliance is to tie the results of the plan into your per-

formance reward program. People have a tendency to do
the things for which they are rewarded. Consistent failure
to perform takes on a whole different meaning that begins
with coaching, progresses to performance counseling, and
finally ends with termination. The sooner you legitimate-
ly get rid of nonperforming management, the greater your
chance of hitting your targets.
Measuring Everyone Against a Business
Performance Model
There are three levels of performance you must consider when for-
mally tracking your business plan (see Figure 12-3). The perfor-
mance is tied specifically to the annual targets of the business plan.
This standard keeps each level focused on doing mission-essential
work, not extraneous, fun activities. These levels are:
■ Level 1. Organizational performance (business plan track)
■ Level 2. Team performance (business plan track)
■ Level 3. Individual performance (performance review pro-
gram)
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
328
Figure 12-3. There are three levels of performance that must be tracked against the business plan. They are
organizational, team, and individual. All lead to the strategic goals.
At the first level of performance measurement the company as
a whole must be held accountable. This demands command
responsibility. Managers are responsible for all that their units do or
fail to do. Performance measurements are not complex at that level.
The question is simple: Did the company hit the plan it estab-
lished? If yes, the organizational performance is acceptable. If the
answer is no, then excuses are not acceptable. If a company fails,
then the president must be responsible and should answer to the

board of directors for his or her failure to provide appropriate lead-
ership and managership of the organization and its plan. It is that
simple.
Likewise at Level 2, managers are held accountable for their
teams using the same command responsibility concept. The vice
president is held accountable for making the sales figures or the
research and development vice president is responsible and
accountable for bringing new products in on schedule. Vice presi-
dents answer to the president in the same fashion as the president
answers to the board of directors—no excuses. Their appropriate
bosses likewise hold other team leaders such as plant managers
accountable.
Level 3 performance is the individual measure of what is done
and how well it is done. The performance review items normally
found in human resources documents must accurately reflect the
actual tasks the individual does each day to accomplish the annual
targets. Again, no extraneous work should be allowed. The key is a
fully qualified individual focused on mission-essential items. The
business plan must include provisions for leadership and manager-
ship training to fill expected skills shortfalls. Don’t ask people to do
jobs they are not trained to do without providing them support.
This training is looped back to the performance review system. How
well were the lessons learned in training applied to perform the
job? This criterion ties any company training activities to the busi-
ness plan, prevents training for training’s sake, and makes account-
ability for skills integral to the individual performance review.
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
330
Establishing Two Types of Standards of
Performance

To successfully implement processes at the three levels, manage-
ment must set and maintain its standards. This is a stabilizing fac-
tor in any organization. There are certain performance levels that
must be held constant. In widely fluctuating situations it becomes
difficult to know what performance factors are satisfactory and
what are unsatisfactory.
Management must improve its standards. Standards are not
fixed points or objectives, but rather the start points for doing a bet-
ter job the next time. Once performance is fixed in place with the
maintenance of standards, improvement begins.
Two types of standards exist: stabilized and evolving. Stabilized
standards are the standards that tell individuals how their perfor-
mance is measured. Goals and objectives usually contain standards.
This helps provide stability to the work situation. As the stabilized
standards are met and improvements in the workflow occur, the
standards are shifted upward. These standards are said to be evolv-
ing as the system becomes fine-tuned. There can be no improve-
ment (the ultimate goal of process mapping) if there are no stan-
dards, they are not disciplined, or they are not allowed to evolve.
Standards carry certain characteristics that help the organiza-
tion form, shape, and project consistency in its story. These may be
found in company documents such as the Standard Operation
Procedures or policy manuals. Too few standards are a lack of disci-
pline while too many standards could become overwhelming. Seek
a working balance. The standards should have the following char-
acteristics:
■ They become the individual authorization and responsi-
bility to carry out work.
■ They are transmittal vehicles of individual experience to
the next generation of employees.

■ They communicate individual experience and know-how
to the organization.
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
331
■ They demonstrate an accumulation of experience within
the organization through their evolving nature.
■ They deploy know-how from one department to another.
■ They serve as a mark of discipline for the organization.
HOW TO SUSTAIN YOUR PLAN: THE FOUR
PLAN ASSURANCE ACTIVITIES
Your plan cannot be launched without support in the background.
There are at least four support areas (see Figure 12-4) for the suc-
cessful implementation of your plan. They are:
1. Business Process Mapping
2. Organizational change management
3. Leadership development
4. Management development
First you must clean up any organizational inefficiency found
in the processes. This is done through Business Process Mapping
(BPM). Don’t delay the implementation of your action plan until
the process improvements are completed because they will never be
finished and must be seen as ongoing initiatives. The BPM can and
should run concurrent with your plan implementation.
A number of organizational change activities may also take
place to support your plan. They may include activities such as
restructuring the organization, an acquisition for growth, or restruc-
turing the debt burden. Strategically realigning the resources and
core competencies may be other examples of the organizational
change necessary to support the future direction of your company.
Leadership and managership behavior must also be aligned

with the plan. Little is accomplished by establishing a vision if lead-
ership is remiss or by setting bold goals if the skill of managerial
efforts is lacking. Actions for improving leadership functions and
management behaviors necessary to match the plan requirements
must be carefully programmed.
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
332
BUSINESS PROCESS MAPPING TO IMPROVE
YOUR BOTTOM LINE
To ensure the healthy implementation of your business plan you
must remove heat loss by conducting a series of Business Process
Mapping sessions. These activities are designed specifically to
remove excessive costs from your business processes through elim-
inating unnecessary, overlapping, and duplicate events while
assigning responsibility and holding managers responsible for cost
control and cost containment (see Figure 12-5).
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
333
Figure 12-4. During the sustaining phase you must pay attention to four
sets of activities required to keep the planning momentum.
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
334
Figure 12-5. Business Process Mapping streamlines your internal ways of
doing work. That is your fastest way to increase the bottom line.
Two ways of thinking must be dovetailed for process mapping
to work. First, the manager must be concerned with results. Of
course results are ultimately the profit goal of any business. That
doesn’t mean that profit drives all actions. It simply means that
profit and other cost issues must be accounted for in the thinking
process. You must be results-oriented. This means a concern for

profitability, cost-effectiveness, and financial goal accomplishment.
The second is to think in terms of processes. This means a concern
for organizational discipline and workflow effectiveness. Often the
results become the focus to the exclusion of the process. The suc-
cessful execution of process mapping can occur only if both process
and results are integrated.
Process mapping is inherently difficult for American managers.
This difficulty stems from a basic philosophy ingrained in us. We
are taught to make great strides in actions by “thinking big,”
“stretching out,” or “going for the gold.” The dream of every engi-
neer is to make a technological breakthrough in his or her field.
While this is great for advancing the field of knowledge, it goes
against the purpose of process mapping, which is continual, incre-
mental improvement. This division of philosophies is so pro-
nounced it is seen as a major difference between Japanese and
American business practices. Americans pride themselves on inno-
vation. We like to take great leaps forward by building things first.
This is a successful method of moving a business forward by
bounds. It is like hitting a home run in baseball. It doesn’t happen
in every game but when it does the results are significant. On the
other hand, the Japanese pride themselves on improving existing
creations. They play a steady game by opting for base hits. They see
incremental improvement as the best way to win the game. This is
also a successful business tool. When the two methods are com-
pared in terms of returns on investments as business ventures, the
gradual development or incremental approach historically provides
the greater return.
I suggest a combination of the two approaches. You are encour-
aged to look for opportunities to excel. However, the real leverages
in the business are in the gradual development of a fine-tuned sys-

tem. This will be through process mapping and improvements of
the system itself.
Levels of Processes
There are four generally accepted levels of key business processes:
1. Level 1—Macro Business Activities. These are functions that
are the responsibility of the top management of the com-
pany. They are big picture or major activities that require
high-level decision making and significantly affect the
future of the company. An example may be the acquisi-
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
335
tion process. The process owners are the president and
vice presidents.
2. Level 2—Companywide Functions. These are activities that
are critical to the company but cut across functional
boundaries. They are owned by a high-level executive but
must be coordinated with other peer executives. Sales
may be an example. While this activity is the responsibil-
ity of the vice president of sales, it must be fully coordi-
nated with research and development, manufacturing,
and shipping.
3.
Level 3—Functional or Departmental Processes. Lower-level
processes fall within the responsibility of a department
and have less coordination requirements across depart-
mental lines. For example, the process of producing a new
design of wallpaper may be the primary responsibility of
the creative department.
4.
Level 4—Unit/Work Group or Individual Processes. Most

processes to carry out business are found at the lowest
level of the organization. Your business is a collage of
many teams and individuals doing daily work. These are
usually routine and often overlooked as candidates for the
process mapping. Yet we know this is where some of your
greatest inefficiencies occur. They may be as simple as
checking in customers at the service department of an
automobile dealership or conducting preventive mainte-
nance on a piece of machinery.
The Payoffs of Process Mapping
Of all the activities that an organization can do to improve its
financial position, challenge employees, and produce better per-
formance, process mapping takes the lead. It is the fastest way I
know to return the greatest amount of resources back into the sys-
tem. Those resources may be dollars on the profit and loss state-
ment, hours saved on manufacturing processes, or quality improve-
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
336
ments in goods or services. In any case the rewards or return for
process mapping should be to:
■ Achieve maximum return for minimum effort.
■ Achieve maximum quality with maximum efficiency.
■ Eliminate unproductive hard work.
■ Use resources in an effective manner.
■ Make informed decisions to implement continuous
improvements or reengineering.
The ability to recover inefficiencies, cut costs, and improve
service is well documented in everyday examples. Many of these
activities are tied to quality improvement programs. In 1992 the
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York,

teamed with
USA Today to recognize teams that have made signifi-
cant improvements in work processes. The 2000 winners and final-
ists include improvements such as the NCR EDI invoicing process
improvement team that improved invoicing from 66.8 percent to
99.6 percent in just five months. Consider what that will do for the
company’s cash flow. Or consider the Team of the Future at Cordis
Corporation, a medical device manufacturer in Miami Lakes,
Florida, that eliminated waste in its manufacturing process. They
were able to save more than $152,000 yearly by eliminating excess
shrinkage in the plastics-curing process. That may not sound like
much, but a little here and a little there adds up. Remember, this
money goes back to the bottom line.
The Six Purposes of Process Mapping
The basic assumption of any organization is that it desires to
improve its business performance. Improvement begins with look-
ing at the way people do their work. Therefore, if a company wish-
es to stay a strong, viable business it must look for leverage points
in its functions where improvements can be made at both the orga-
nizational and individual levels. You should use process mapping
specifically to:
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
337
■ Solve problems. Unresolved problems are a drain on your
efficiency, annoy people, and create low morale. Problem
solving is usually a set of questions to be initially asked.
Process mapping can be used to solve problems by helping
answer three questions:
1. What is the problem? (This is called the problem
statement.)

2. Why is this a problem?
3. How will you solve the problem?
■ Define individual responsibility, authority, and accountability.
This means tasks within a company, project, or work team
are assigned. It answers the questions of who is responsi-
ble for each task, what authority they have to complete
the work, and how you plan to hold them accountable.
■ Clarify work. If we understand individual responsibilities
then we must eliminate redundant tasks, eliminate repeti-
tion, and reduce effort by having a clear picture of what
constitutes work.
■ Eliminate task redundancy and duplication. Redundant work
is unnecessary, not cost-effective, and detracts from
focused performance toward objectives. Often redundan-
cy occurs when departments fail to clarify areas of respon-
sibility and two individuals are working on the same proj-
ect unknown to each other.
■ Initiate continual improvement. By cleaning up the specifics
of workflow, improvements begin to appear in the system.
■ Initiate reengineering if necessary. Reengineering is an alter-
native choice that may develop from a process map. This
decision is reached when the advantages of small changes
are not sufficient to warrant the continuation of the
process. If a major or bold improvement is needed, the
decision becomes one to reengineer.
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
338
Process Mapping as a Motivational Tool
At the individual level, process mapping takes on a more practical
tone and less of a textbook meaning. For decades management con-

sultants have looked for the magic formula for motivating employ-
ees. The heart of the answer is to give people challenging, mean-
ingful work. A process that is repetitive, redundant, and excessive
does not meet that specification. To improve the overall sense of
achievement among employees try process mapping specifically to:
■ Make the job easier for the employee.
■ Remove drudgery found in noncritical, boring work.
■ Remove nuisances that get in the way of productivity.
■ Make the job more productive overall.
■ Improve the quality of the activity.
■ Save time by eliminating wasted motion.
■ Save costs by effectively using resources.
The Practical Applications of Process Mapping
I suggest you use Business Process Mapping to get a better picture
of your organization’s efforts. This accomplishes clarification of
what has to be done and identifies the interdependencies of the
work. If you develop a process map of divisional, departmental, and
unit workflow you can eliminate redundant tasks, repetition, and
unnecessary effort by having a clear picture of what constitutes
work because you will know where work comes from, what work
has to be done, and in what order.
The process map also establishes interdependencies for work
tasks: This means you know whom you are dependent on for work-
flow information. It also means you are identified as a resource to
someone else in the system as a dependency. It is critical to under-
stand the connecting dependencies with other departments and
divisions as well as the individual responsibilities. A process flow
map shows those dependencies and provides an opportunity to
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
339

clarify and agree to them. It spells out where work goes and who
depends on the work.
To study tasks you must think in terms of what is done and
what is implied. The implied is the most difficult. Embedded in the
work maybe a hidden task. There are often many implied tasks that
get overlooked. When ignored, they become the single most com-
mon reason for failure to communicate, coordinate, and act on an
issue. These implied tasks should be shown on the process map.
How and Where to Start Process Mapping
Here are the steps for building a process map. Before you begin the
actual work to build your process maps consider the following
steps:
1. Identify all the processes you suspect need attention. This
is best done with your management team and any expert
advice from the employee pool.
2. Next establish which processes need to be addressed first.
Your team will know where the greatest problems are
because they deal with these things every day. Pick four or
five to run simultaneously. You cannot do everything at
once, so stay with a limited number.
3. Designate the process owners, define their responsibilities,
and charge each with the authority to execute a corrected
map. Tie this to the owner’s performance review.
The next level of activities is to conduct the Business Process
Mapping. Get your teams together in a large room with tables, long
rolls of paper, and plenty of sticky notes for building the charts. You
will use this manual method first because of the ongoing modifica-
tions to be made in developing the charts. When you are satisfied
with the final results, the chart can be shifted to a workflow soft-
ware package on your computer.

The following sequence for conducting a process mapping ses-
sion has proved very effective over time and with a number of suc-
cessful mapping teams:
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
340
1. Present a mini-overview of how the business process
works. The participants need to know the mechanics of
the process.
2. Complete the first map selected by each team. This is a
flow of the “as is” activities.
3. Develop the “costs” of the map by putting a dollar figure
on each action and adding the figures.
4. Develop a “wish list” of what you want each new map to
do for your business.
5. Complete the second map of the process “as it could be.”
6. Develop the “costs” of the map using the same criteria as
you did for the first map.
7. Compare the costs of maps one and two.
8. Discuss what value each new version of the maps brings to
the organization. This is where the “heat loss” or organi-
zational inefficiency is really amplified.
9. Make decisions about how to implement the new map
into the system. Make sure it is tied to individual account-
ability.
Connecting Individual Performance With Process
Mapping
Earlier in the book I made a case for too many pitchers and only
one batter: the employee having too many tasks. I strongly suggest
you cut the number of individual tasks down to four or five mis-
sion-essential actions. These become the starting points for indi-

vidual process mapping. Have each employee ask just two basic
questions.
1. What are my tasks?
2. What is my understanding of the end product or results of
doing my tasks?
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
341
To study tasks you must think in terms of what is specified in
the job description and what is implied. This means your specified
task is usually given to you while the implied tasks are embedded
in the requirement. There are often many implied tasks that get
overlooked. When ignored they become the single most common
reason for failure to communicate, coordinate, and act on an issue.
The tasks you do each day can be grouped in terms of their sig-
nificance to the organization. This priority listing gives clues to
what is most important or what can be delayed. Tasks can be divid-
ed into four types:
1.
Ongoing Daily Work. These are the things you do as a mat-
ter of routine. They are so frequent that they become the
pattern or fabric of your daily activities.
2. One-off Tasks. These are unique tasks that you must attend
to on an infrequent basis. They are usually small in scope
and scale but require close attention before they become
problem areas. You may or may not see these tasks or sim-
ilar ones again for months. You may or may not choose to
chart or schedule them in a formal fashion.
3.
Mini Projects. These are tasks of a larger scope and scale
than routine. You will probably choose to chart (e.g.,

using a Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
or flowchart) or schedule these events because they
require more coordination, closer attention to suspense
dates, and better planning. It may be too much to carry
around in your head or on a few notes in your calendar.
4.
Major Projects. These are tasks of a very large scope and
scale. They are often large enough to have a full-time proj-
ect manager. The task may be so large that it overshadows
your present duties. In most cases you will be required to
chart or schedule this event as part of the company’s his-
torical management records. Because it requires more
coordination, closer attention to suspense dates, and bet-
ter resources planning, you must give this type of task
Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan
342
careful attention and sufficient time. You should use com-
puters to assist you in both the development and the man-
agement of a project of this size.
Preliminary Questions Before Process Mapping
As you get ready to process map your job, there are certain ques-
tions to keep in mind. By asking these questions of yourself you
may save problems later on in the actual mapping:
■ What is the purpose of my job?
■ When the process map is completed, what will be the out-
comes?
■ What problems may I expect to encounter?
■ What is my authority?
■ What is my responsibility?
■ What items will I be held accountable for?

■ What is my budget?
■ What are my time restrictions?
■ Who are my customers?
■ Who and what are my resources?
■ Who must I coordinate with to do my job?
Process Ownership and Management to
Overcome Four Obstacles
The planning team must recognize and address several factors in
the work environment that hinder establishment of a lean operat-
ing system. These are ingrained business phenomena that must be
identified and negated. For instance:
■ Business processes overlap functional boundaries yet you
allow islands of power (i.e., stovepipes) to exist in the
functioning of your business even though they are ineffi-
cient, disruptive, and self-serving.
Implementing and Sustaining Your Business Plan
343
■ Identified problems are usually solved within functional
boundaries and often focus only on immediate problem
resolution and not necessarily on the root cause. This
means the solving of a problem by one staff function may
actually cause problems for another agency.
■ Organizations have a tendency to seek a stage of internal
equilibrium and comfort within organization boundaries.
Ongoing improvement is not a natural state. Change is
unnatural, feared, and resisted by most organizations.
■ The only persons who have responsibility over all aspects
of a single process usually have such broad responsibilities
they cannot devote adequate attention to lead the
improvement process.

The best solution for the above-mentioned conditions is to
assign each process to an owner. In the course of managing a
process, an owner assumes responsibility for the output of the work
units over which she has no direct control. This fact establishes the
need for a process owner who is high enough in the organizational
hierarchy to be able to get the work done. The process owner must
be able to influence decisions and people outside her direct area of
responsibility. The owner must have an overall perspective of her
business and the environment to assess its impact on the process.
Finally, there must be a reward or punishment factor for success or
failure. The owner must be personally affected by the outcome of
the process.
The process owner serves a critical role within the confines of
the business plan. Without the support of various champions of the
processes, the plan slides back to mediocre results. For the process
owners to conduct meaningful business they need the authority to
evaluate and approve the process as it is developed. That authority
includes monitoring and rating people on how well processes are
functioning. The ultimate test of a company process mapping activ-
ity is whether the results of the map are tied to the performance
review system.
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344
Using Teams in Process Improvement Activities
Successful companies know that when properly used, teams can
produce significant results. They include teams in process improve-
ment. Teamwork is defined as active participation in, and facilita-
tion of, team effectiveness; taking actions that demonstrate consid-
eration for the feelings and needs of others; and being aware of the
effect of one’s behaviors on others.

Before considering using the team approach, examine and
answer these three questions:
1.
Are all functions represented? Remember that most process-
es cross multiple boundaries and have an affect on other
departments, units, or teams. Often these conditions are
cloudy or obscure, so think carefully when putting togeth-
er the cross-functional team to build the map.
2.
Are technical experts required? Make sure you have the cor-
rect skills represented on the team to answer technical
questions. This will save you time and embarrassment in
the long run.
3.
Are there functions outside the process to be analyzed that need
to be represented? This means you must understand where
the process fits into the bigger picture of your business
functions. Little is accomplished by solving a problem in
finance if it creates more problems in personnel.
THE FIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES TO
SUPPORT THE BUSINESS PLAN
To carry out your plan you may need to institute change manage-
ment activities. These are basic changes to the way you currently
operate that will create resistance when altered or redirected.
Normally these activities have long-term cultural implications and
require the support of the workforce to be fully effective. A few
areas frequently identified with organizational change are:
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■ Changing the Company Vision. Any change in direction

brings on concerns from the workforce along with a vari-
ety of reactions. Some employees may agree and support
the vision shift while others may agree with the new direc-
tion but are fearful of the effort required. Still others will
not agree with the new direction because it may be a rad-
ical shift from the very foundations of the company. This
happens frequently when new management is brought
into a sluggish, established company and tries to make a
fresh start.
■ Changing the Company Drivers or Focus. A company focused
on one driver attempting to shift to another focus will
experience serious upheaval. For example, shifting from
operational excellence to a customer-intimate focus will
create confusion on the part of the employees. Just com-
municating the shift and describing examples of the
required new behavior is time-consuming, painful, and
tedious for management.
■ Changing the Company Structure. Just the rumor of an orga-
nizational change sends negative messages into the heart
of the workforce. Structural change gets quickly translated
into downsizing with the integral loss of jobs.
■ Changing the Company’s Management Behavior. If a compa-
ny is autocratic, doesn’t share power, and uses centralized
decision making, it is difficult to make a believable
change. Perhaps new key managers take control and want
to operate from a posture of collaboration, shared power,
and consensus decision making. The residual effect of the
old management style will be a strong influence for years
on the new team.
To successfully incorporate change management and counter

the above-mentioned conditions, the planning team must consider
five important steps:
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346
1. Make sure the business plan is complete and reaches to the low-
est level of the organization. Participation of all levels in the
planning model eliminates misunderstanding and damp-
ens fears.
2.
Make sure the final plan is communicated to the operator level.
A plan that goes on the shelf or is not heard from again is
designed to fail. The employees must know the final deci-
sions and disposition of the plan.
3.
Make sure the plan is what you do every day. If your plan
requires you to do one thing but you do another on a
daily basis, the plan is not believable. It is a worthless doc-
ument that wasted everyone’s time.
4.
Make sure the plan is monitored, measured, and accounted for
in terms of results. Let executives, managers, supervisors,
and employees know you are serious about the effort put
into the planning process by holding them accountable
for the results.
5.
Make sure the executive team models effective managerial
behavior. The term role model cannot be overstated. Require
every level of management and supervision to adhere to
the core values and practice the philosophy of the com-
pany in day-to-day examples.

ASSURANCES FOR LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
So far we’ve covered two of the four plan assurance activities for the
successful implementation of your plan. We’ve covered business
process planning and organizational change management in some
detail. The last two plan assurance activities are leadership devel-
opment and managership development. They are grouped together
for discussion in this section.
Leadership and managership training necessary to support the
business plan is not a universal or blanket program. Rather, it is a
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